Ethereal Tethers
by ATTHS
Summary: Mulder offers to help Scully after Tithonus


"I don't want you to have to do something you don't want to do. If you would rather, I can call my mother-"

"Scully, how many times have I gotten your stuff for you over the years? Especially when one of us has ended up in the hospital? You tell me what you need and I will get it for you." Mulder said as he stood by her bedside.

She was in the hospital, again. After being assigned to work with Agent Ritter, she had pursued an X File which they should have worked on together. She would not have gotten shot if he had been there. He would have believed Fellig when he said he was immortal. Would have wanted to know more about him.

It made no difference now, Fellig was dead. Shot by the same bullet that could have killed Scully. Killed her and Mulder would not have been there. To save her, help her, or hold her hand. His jaw clenched as he thought again how satisfying it would be to punch Ritter in the face.

Scully made him a list of things she needed. She would be in the hospital for a few more days. As much as she was ready to leave, she had to stay. Now that she was awake and not simply sleeping all day, things like underwear and her own toothbrush would be nice. Her lotion, her makeup. Some things to make her not feel like an invalid.

Mulder took the list, scanned it, and nodded. He folded it and put it in his pocket.

Oh

"You're sure you don't mind? It's not a quick journey. I would be okay if-"

"Scully, stop. I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want to do something to help. Your mom doesn't need to make that long trip. I can go. I'll hop on the shuttle and be back before you know it."

He came closer to her bed and took her hand. Their thumbs again playing their own version of a thumb war. He smiled and let her hand go. He looked at her and she stared back. He leaned down and kissed her temple. "Be back soon, get some rest."

Two hours on a flight with crying children and one crazy taxi ride later, he was walking into her apartment. He went into her room and grabbed a bag from her closet. He took the list out and started grabbing items. Pants, couple shirts, couple sweaters, a blazer. At that one, he smiled. Of course, being in the hospital would not stop her from having a blazer on hand.

He opened a drawer and picked up a few pairs of her underwear and a couple bras. He tried not to think about it too much as he put them in the bag. He grabbed some pajamas and added them too.

He went into the bathroom and started gathering her toiletries. How many times had he seen this stuff sitting in hotel rooms? Walked into her room after she had showered and the whole room smelled of her?

He would listen outside their connecting rooms sometimes knowing she was showering. He would listen, waiting until he knew she had dressed, before he would knock three times to be doubly sure she was decent. When she called out to come in, he would walk in, breathing deeply, surrounded by her scent. Her soap, her shampoo, her perfume, but under it all, the scent of **her**.

While he would purposely seek it out, being around her presented its challenges. As much as he respected her on every level, he was still a man. She was a beautiful woman and he was around her almost everyday. He was aware of everything about her, but none more so than that scent. The one that was unmistakably hers. And even that had almost been his undoing.

She had bought a new perfume about a year ago and had worn it for about a week. While it smelled good, it was not the scent of **his** Scully. He could not stand it. It threw him off, left him feeling out of control. He had sat in cars, airplanes, forests, restaurants, diners, motel rooms, their own homes and countless other places with her. Her scent was a constant. He knew it was her behind him before he saw her. He knew her footfall, but her scent always reached him first. He knew he could not come right out and demand she change it back or tell her how amazing she had always smelled. No, not without sounding like an asshole or insinuating he had been having thoughts unbecoming to his partner. So he did what he usually did and talked around it.

One day while driving to a case, with many miles to go in which he was trapped with the UnScully scent, he had told her a story. A case he had read a few years back. He knew she had not read all the files in the office, so there was no way she could have known it was complete bullshit. If she did, at that point, he honestly did not care. He just needed her scent back.

He told her of a mother who had lost her youngest son. He was three when he simply vanished. A search was conducted but to no avail. The mother believed the worst, she would never see her child again. But she never gave up hope that she would be proven wrong. Everywhere she went, she looked for him- the grocery store, the cleaners, business trips, vacations. Always searching for the child, then the boy, then the young man, she had lost.

One day, many years later, she was at a park with her grandson. She had just helped him off the slide when a man approached her. He had tears running down his face and the woman was taken aback.

"You see Scully, the man had known it was his mother."

"But how could he have, Mulder? Three years old is too young to recall facial recognition. He would have had to have had access to her photo or something to know it was her. But even then, Mulder, if it had been so many years, as you claim, she would look completely different. In all those years her hairstyle had changed, obviously her face. So to assume he would know her seems preposterous."

"Ah, but Scully, one thing hadn't changed all those years. Yes, she was older now, the effects of time and worry had taken a toll on her, but not in one aspect."

"And what was that Mulder?"

"Her scent, Scully. He recognized her scent."

"What? How could he have-"

"Think about it Scully. Think of your childhood home. Did it not have a specific scent, different than any other home you ever visited? Your grandparents home- did it not have a special scent? Your own mother, you would know her simply by smelling her perfume. But it's more than that, it's a person's personal scent. That scent that even under the disguise of a perfume, cologne, or soap could be identified. Think of how powerful that scent must have been that he would know her by it so many years later. That's what he told her and then the reporters when they were interviewed. He told them that he had smelled a scent while walking by the park that he hadn't smelled in years. A scent that he remembered but couldn't place. He got closer to it and realized it was her. Her scent, Scully. In all the years he was gone, the thing she never changed was her perfume. Her scent remained tied to her and that tether stretched out into the ethers. Leaving a road map for him to find her again."

He had seen her wipe at her eyes with her head turned toward the window. He knew it was a good story and knowing Scully, one that would touch her. He just hoped it was enough. The UnScully scent was beginning to choke him.

They solved the case fairly quickly, but Scully had seemed preoccupied and would drift away at times.

They had gotten home late on a Saturday and he did not see her until Monday morning. As she opened the door to the office, the scent that reached him was like a spring rain after a drought. He watched as she hung her coat and heard her ask about his day off.

He stammered a response and offered up a joke at which she smirked. As she got closer to the desk, he felt his senses would explode at the scent they were drinking in.

"Is that a new perfume Scully?" he had asked in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone.

"No, it's uh.. actually the one I've always used. I had found a new one I thought I liked and was trying out, but.. I.. I think I like this one better," she had said, not quite meeting his eyes.

"It smells good," he said while his heart hammered and he managed to keep a goofy grin off his face. "I think it suits you."

She had looked at him and smiled. "Well, I wouldn't want the ethereal road map to run into any speed bumps."

She had left then to check on some lab work. He sat there grinning like a fool, not caring one bit. Her scent was still lingering all around the room and he was breathing it in.

He smiled again, as he added things to her toiletry bag, remembering how happy he had been to get her scent back. He picked up her perfume bottle and opened it, before adding it to the bag. He breathed it in and it was as if he was able to smell his past. To smell a memory. Days and weeks of memories. Good and bad, but mainly just **her**. Memories of her. Of them.

He grabbed her toothbrush and paste adding them to the bag. He looked to see if there was anything he was forgetting. He put the bag down and took her perfume out one more time. He closed his eyes as he opened it and let her scent invade his senses. Too many memories to name. All tied to this scent. Talk about an X File. He put it back and zipped up the bag.

He came back into her room and put the toiletry bag in with her clothes. He grabbed a pair of boots and put them in a plastic store bag he found under the kitchen sink, then added it to the near to overflowing bag. He took some socks out of her drawer and added those as well.

One last look at her list and he saw he had gotten everything. He placed her blazer on top of all her items and zipped the bag. He grabbed his keys, walked out the door, locked the place up, and headed back to the airport. Back to the woman he could find blindfolded, just by following his nose.


End file.
